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Pittsburgh Pirates Shut Down Atlanta Braves, Even Series

April 28th, 2012 at 11:16 PM By Cody Fields

Randall Delgado struggled in his first start since officially replacing Jair Jurrjens in the Atlanta Braves starting rotation. He was much more effective against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who evened the four-game series Saturday.

The Pirates entered with the worst offense in the majors with a lineup featuring four starts with batting averages below the Mendoza line, but Delgado gave up four runs on eight hits in just 4 1/3 innings.

That was a stark contrast to Pittsburgh starter Erik Bedard, who had a total of three runs of support in his first four starts. He held the Braves to just one run on five hits in five innings while striking out nine.

Delgado's troubles started immediately with a leadoff single by Alex Pressley. The inning also included two walks and a sacrifice fly by Garrett Jones, taking Delgado 22 pitches to complete. Delgado would proceed to give up two more runs in the second inning.

Delgado then managed to get baseball's worst offense to waste a bases loaded jam in the third, and he retired the Pirates in order in the fourth before giving up consecutive doubles in the fifth to Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez to end his night.

The Braves, on the other hand, were busy striking out 14 times on the night. The only run they managed off Bedard was in the third inning when Martin Prado doubled and was driven in on a single by Dan Uggla.

Overall, the Braves struck out 14 times and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

After missing the first month of the season, Tim Hudson will make his 2012 debut opposite Kevin Correia at 1:35 on Sunday.